Handbook for Doing Finnish American Family History [2 ed.]

Citation preview

D '

FOR DOING FINNISH AMERICAN .

. ·FA :

LY

ISTORY

,.

__

..

\

...

....

Handbook For Doing Finnish American

Family History Second Edition

By

Carl Ross and VelmaM. Doby

Materials Originally Compiled by Carl Ross, Velma .M. Doby, and Jeanne C. Maki Book Design and Illustrations by Marcelle Williams Minnesota Finnish American Family History Project

Copyright © Minnesota Finnish American Historical Society First Printing 1980 Second Printing 1988 by MF AHS

Printed and Distributed by Parta Printers, Inc. New York Mills, MN 56567

Minnesota Finnish American Family History Project, 1979-81 Supported by Funds from the Minnesota State Legislature awarded by the Minnesota Historical Society Velma M. Doby, Project Director

Carl Ross, Advisor/Consultant

Advisors Hyman Berman Michael G. Kami Marianne Wargelin Brown Matti Kaups Carl Chrislock Barbara Lamppa Marvin Lamppa Lila Johnson Goff

Wiley Pope Timo Riippa Christian Skjervold Rudolph Vecoli

. ...................... " ............ ,,,,, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. .•••• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FOREWORD .... .••n•••••••.n ........................ .. .. I

a • e e • e e e a e e a e a •• a e e e e e •

8

e • e • a a e e

4444444.44. ..44.44il4.4AAA.444444444444'

1il.4.4.4il.4.4.4.4il.

& APPRECIATION

Reprinting of this Handbook by the Minnesota Finnish American Historical Society is a noteworthy event. It again makes available a work that has been for several years out of print even though inquiries and orders continued to come in from all around the country and even from abroad.

With this reprint the Society demonstrates a renewed dedication to the original principles on which it was founded: the gathering and popularization of the history of Minnesota Finnish Americans.

The Handbook has proven useful to hundreds of famity historians and seems as appropriate as when it was first published. It has continued to

serve as a model among Finnish Americans and many other ethnic groups on how to develop family history. In classrooms and genealogical society meetings il has become a standard text. Thus the introduction, text and illustrations have been reproduced without alteration. Only the Foreword is updated by the authors. Readers will find the original exposition of what Finnish American family history consists of and how to go about gathering it. Extensive selections from both published and unpublished family histories illustrate what family history is about. Photographs and illustrations arranged with professional skill by Marcelle Williams are included to demonstrate the value of manuscript materials, photographs and artifacts as sources of history. When first published in 1980 by the Minnesota Finnish American Family History Project the Handbook made possible the successful conclusion of the Proj ect. The Project stimulated over a hundred written and taped family histories that were contributed to the Finnish American Collection of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota. Subsequently the IHRC has prepared a printed Guide to the Minnesota Finnish American Family History Collection as an aid to family historians and academic researchers. Research based on these family histories has contributed to our overall understanding of Finnish American history and culture. We acknowledge our debt to the immigrant generation of settlers in Minnesota from Finland without whose pioneer efforts we would have no Finnish American history or heritage to gather through the medium of family histories. We must again thank the scores of individuals whose enthusiasm and demands for information and guidance originally made this Handbook both necessary and possible. The project advisors and other scholars were helpful. Funding from the Minnesota Historical Society and the MFAHS assured the first printing. We thank Alma Lunden, Irma Beckman, Anna Turner-Laine, Debbie Nikkari, and William Syrjala for the excerpts from family histories; Robert Lundeen, Robert Selvala, Toini Mackie, Jeanne C. Maki, and others for the use of family documents and photographs and Dale Hendrickson for allowing us to visit and photograph the family homestead.

Carl Ross Velma Doby March, 1988

•••••••nn••• ...... • •.• •.• •.• •.• •.• •.,•

............. C0

~

........................... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ......................... NT ENT S

Foreword and Appreciation Introduction

TTTTTTTTffTTTTTnTYTn"1

7

Part One: WHO AND WHAT Building the Family Tree What Goes Into Family History Minnesota History Background

11

15 19

Part Two: INTERVIEWING Your Main Tool Interview Guide Techniques and Interviewing

31 34 38

Part Three: RESEARCH Why Research Sources In The Home Public Sources Tracing Your Finland Roots

53 57 63 73

Part Four: WRITING Putting It All Together Your History in the Collection Bibliography Appendix

75

86 89 91

"Kesajuhla " [Summer Festival), Brookston, August, 1946. [From Ellen Davis.]

The history of most American families is actually ethnic history. You could start by asking: " What's in a name? " and find that most family names relate to a particular national origin and ethnic heritage. The rediscovery among Americans that we are Finnish Americans, Italian Americans, Polish Americans, etc., signals a new consciousness of origin, a sense of identity that has been transmitted through the family as surely as is the propens ity in your kitchen, or your parent's kitchen, to favor some particular ethnic foods. When TV showed " Roots," it demonstrated that family history is not something exclusively for descendents of the Mayflower passengers and the Daughters of the American Revolution. "Roots" shook the dry dust off the history

books. It took the term "family history" out of the context of ancestor-chasing into the real world in which all of our ancestors were actors. It made history alive and exciting as part of the daily life and experiences of real people who were makers of history . Suppose Hollywood were casting for another spectacular family history production? Would your family be a prospect? Could you see yourself, your parents, grandparents or greatgrandparents in that scenario? Why not? If not, is it because you feel that the family you

know--for instance, your Finnish American family--is of such recent or "humble" origin? Nonsense! The Finnish immigrants, most of whom came during the early twentieth 7

century, took part in one of the epic migrations of people in all history. They had the courage to tear away from centuries old roots to come to a new land. They helped build the industrial might of America and the Minnesota we know today. Their lives were significant in shaping the communities of our state, in our recent American history, and also in leaving a Finnish heritage behind them for us to cherish.

Finnish legacy to their own children. With their experience of both the immigrant past and present, the second generation may be the biggest reservoir of family lore.

The Minnesota Finnish American Family History Project is a pioneer effort to act on the idea that a truer and more interesting family history will result from exploring it as part of your personal ethnic heritage. You are in on the ground floor of a new way of doing family history if you enlist in this project to do a history of your own family.

It does not matter what generation you belong

Where does Finnish American family .hstory begin? In Finland? Yes, and no. Properly speaking, it begins in America with the experience of the immigrants. Their cultural heritage and the conditions which led to their emigration are found in Finland, but the substance of Finnish-American family history is the American experience as recorded in the stories of the day-to-day activities of the members of individual families. These stories tell not only of their adaptation to American life, but also of the persistence of Finnish traditions, culture and language over the years and from one generation to another. Much of that history is not yet recorded, but most of it still exists in the memories and recollections of individuals who have lived through it and participated in it. This living memory is there to be tapped by you and other "family historians", beginning with the thinning ranks of the immigrants themselves. Then there are thousands of living and active second generation Finnish Americans, sons and daughters of immigrants, who link the already fadctd immigrant past to the present. The~ can recall the immigrant family home of their own childhood. They grew into adulthood in communities of which Finns were a part. While they became Americans in every sense of the word, their words, actions and teachings are largely responsible for passing along the 8

Your best sources of family history are members of your family who will share your own interest and goals, opening their stored m.emories and personal records to you, the family historian. to, whether you are yourself an immigrant or the great grandchild of immigrants from Finland. Nor does it matter if your earlies t Minnesota family connections go back to the 1880's, the early twentieth century, or begin only after World War II. So long as part of your family history was lived in Minnesota it is part of Minnesota history. Your family story begins with the immigrants (and probably their personal roots in Finland) and moves to the present, to you and your immediate family (or even to your children and grandchildren). The focus of this Handbook is on the continuity of family experience over successive generations and their continuing selfidentification as Finnish Americans. These family histories should recall and relate many of the things that have been characteristic of Finnish American life. These are more than histories of isolated families since groups of Finnish immigrant families together formed Minnesota's Finnish communities. These same families were also the originators of local Finnish American institutions such as churches, halls, cooperatives, cultural and political societies, all the activities and groups in which each Finnish American family was involved to a greater or lesser extent. The kind of work that the men and women did, the family migrations they undertook to new areas or from the towns to farms and back again, were all important parts of the family experience. So also were the attitudes others had toward Finns, sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile, as would be the case in communities shared among different ethnic groups. But first and foremost, a family history is the story of the inner life of a family, a tale of their tribulations, joys and sorrows,

foibles

and

anecdotes

told

against

the

~ackground of the community in which they

history will be one of many, it should fit into a common design.

lived and the events of their times. You will need to determine the focus of your own family history before you pull together the results of your interviews and research and begin to write it up. You may elect to focus on a few central characters that you feel are particularly interesting or important and build the _story around their experiences. You may de~ide~ to emphasize particular times, events, or mterests. The decisions can be made later. But it is well to be aware at the outset that the scope of the family history you put together will necessarily have to be limited by the amount of information and time you have and by the choice you make about what and whom to build the narrative around. It cannot possibly encompass all the family members unto the last aunt, uncle, or cousin. Even without doing so, you can capture the essential character of your family experience. ~or is it ~ necessary aspect of your family history to discover how far back in time you·can trace your origins. You may want to establish ~he Finland .origins of your family especially msofar as it was the "homeland" of the immigrant members of your Finnish American family. However, extended research into Finland sources is not a requirement of good family history.

You will discover that there are many and o~ten ~ontradictory, ideas of what f~mily history .1s : so bear in mind that family history is somethm~ you personally create to fulfill your own reqmrements and the objectives you have chosen. The Minnesota Finnish American ~ai:riily H~s~ory Project in which you are i~vited to Jou:i offers you a new kind of family history experience to share in. Its purpose is to a~sist_ indiv.iduals like you in doing family histories which taken together will represent an accurate profile of Minnesota's Finnish ~~ericans. A. n~w dimension of history, an mtimate description of the Finnish American people of our state over roughly the last hundred years, will be added to the formal histories of major events, institutions and group activities that now exist. Since your

The four parts which would make up a family history as proposed in this Handbook are: First there is your "family tree" entered on a form provided in this book and explained as part of your written story. It can be comprehensive, tracing family relationships over many generations both on your mother's and father's side. Or, it can be comparatively brief, identifying mainly the persons around whom your story will be built. In either case your Family Tree Chart is a "skeleton" fo; your family history; it indicates family relationships and fixes a general time span for your history. 1)

2) The second and most important part is a written history, long or short, in English or Finnish, that you will write. In this written narrative you will flesh out the skeleton your Family Tree provides. You describe people and their experiences ; tell what you know and have learned about how they lived and what they did . This written history ought to include you, the narrator, as well as the other persons you choose to focus the story on. ~) Since_ history can be told in other ways than JUSt written form, the third part can be a supplementary collection of materials (or xerox copies of them) adding to the written narrative and providing evidence of its authenticity. This may include photographs letters, clippings, documents, such as birth certificates, naturalization papers, or whatever you believe will enhance the history. Personal memoirs, tapes of interviews, writeups in papers or journals, family histories by other members of the family, all these can be part of such a collection. It might also include an inv~ntory and some photographs of things var10us members of the family may own (material objects brought from Finland years ago, or furniture, barns, saunas, homemade tools, looms, quilts, and such things made in the "Finnish style").

4) Finally, in addition to what you do we propose that the last part of your family hi~tory 9

be made in the form of taped interviews by a non-family interviewer (a Project representative) with one or more members of your family which would enlarge on your written history. These oral history tapes would be a unique record of your family and will become part of the family history collection under conditions aiding scholarly research while also protecting the privacy of persons interviewed. This handbook is your guide to preparing such a history. The first part will discuss building your Family Tree and will give examples of the kind of things that go into a family history. The remainder of the handbook introduces you to the " how to" aspects of preparing your history. This will cover: Gathering information through interviews and family assistance. A detailed Interview Guide is given to clue you into the kind of information you seek. Problems of arranging, conducting, and recording interviews are discussed.

1)

2) Locating and collecting information both in the home and through researching in public sources to fill gaps in your information and to verify or authenticate information you have. 3) Keeping, identifying, and organizing information in a useful and accessible way as you proceed with your research. 4) How to assemble and write up the story of your family at the conclusion, and the procedures for donating your history to the permanent Finnish American Family History Collection. 5) An Appendix of further information on Minnesota sources of public records, location of major libraries and research facilities in Minnesota and in Finland, a bibliography of supplementary readings, and copies of forms provided for facilitating your work. Each form

10

is discussed in appropriate sections of this book. Project participants can make their own copies of these forms in the quantity required. These forms are: 1. Family Tree Chart 2. Family Group Record 3. Biographical Information Sheet (3 pages) 4. Interview Identification Sheet 5. Cassette Identification Card 6. Interview Release Form 7. Identification of Sources of Information

At the conclusion of the Project in May of 1981, the individual histories will be brought together into a single collection, organized and indexed as source materials from which historians and other scholars will gain new insights into Finnish American History, and the history of our state and nation. In approving a grant for the Project from funds provided by the Minnesota State Legislature, the Minnesota Historical Society recognized the public benefit derived from collecting and preserving these materials. But over and above accomplishing these general goals, your efforts will reap personal rewards. You will produce a treasured addition to your family's knowledge of itself as well as enrich yourself personally. You will become aware of the significance of your family's collected documents, clippings, photographs and other memorabilia. You will learn to identify and store these materials in a way in which their historical value will be preserved for your family . (You may also want to donate some of these precious original materials to an archival facility for permanent storage either now or at some time in the future.) Finally, working on your family history, you will create an opportunity for remembering past events and for reflecting personally on your experiences. Sharing this process with other family members could lead to better communication and deeper understandings within your family.

.·.......·.··....·.·.·...·.·.·

........... • • ... •...•

P~RT

ONE

.................................. ............................................... ....... . . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Who and What

Building the Fanilly Tree What you will be writing is a family history. Family history is not exactly the same as genealogy, a search for ancestors ending with the discovery of the most remote antecedent of your family. Nevertheless the family historian must begin by constructing a " family tree" encompassing several generations. The "roots" of your " tree" will be in Finland where the cultural and historical origins of your Finnish American family lie. But your family history will most naturally begin 11

..................................... ............. ..................... ...............................................

Maternal and paternal grandmothers, mother, sister, and uncles of Robert Lundeen on the paternal homestead, Orr, Minn. in 1927.

with the immigrant experience of leaving Finland and settling in America. To begin you will want to identify who were your first Finnish American ancestors. Unlike a "genealogist" who would be most interested in working back from that point you will start with the immigrants and move the story of successive generations toward the present. It will be up to you to decide how far to pursue your family origins in F inland. At the end of this handbook you will find a sample "Family Tree Chart" where you can inser t your own name on the right hand side and moving left, fill in the names of your parents, grandparents and great grandparents. This family chart as it will loo.k when completed for these three generations is printed here on the opposite page. It includes two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, a total of fourteen persons not counting brothers or sisters and their children! This is Robert Selvala 's family who were early Minnesota settlers. The circled names are the immigrant generation in that family. Your " Family Tree Chart" on the other hand, may represent only two generations in America (not counting your own children or grandchildren ) but it will represent boundless possibilities for a rich family history. Building your family tree is not a simple task unless some family member has already done much of the work. We will discuss ways of doing necessary research both in the United States and in Finland. But at this point (assuming you have not yet done this) you can begin by searching your own memory and records for the names and information already at hand for entering on the chart. When this is 12

~

SELVA LA, ISAK ADAMSSON Great-Grant! fatlwr:

U:l9 October 1823 i\1:

1900 u. FERSDOTTER, BRITA F Gro.,:it-( ;rant! mother:

U:24 June 1823 M:

0:9 .August 1862 SIKA INEN ARON (ire a 1-1 ;ra rufi'atlwr:

II: i\I:

FORl1 1

FAMILY TREE CHART (TRACING YOUR ANCESTRY. .

SELVALA, ISA.AC _r.ran1lfathcr:

TO FINLAND)

May 1850 'Nedertornea, Sweden This chart may be used 1-1:15 .November 1882 , for listing basic informaBeaver Falls, Minnesota tion on your direct 0:5 March 1942 I father: SELVALA, ARNOLD WILHELtlrcestors. La Habra, California Key o: 25 October 1900 1:1: Bitthplar.c ;i.wl dah! Finlayson, Minnesota M: Marri:1.,;c place \Jtul date M: 19 Aui,;ust 1925 0: l'tu~c Jltd J;olc or dcJlh Buffalo, Minnesota SIKAINEN, WILJ!ELMINA IJ: 3 .2

Gr:rnilmuthc r:

D: 24 July 1889

c~8fi1n~.?imt.fi,~:' ANNA G

----

n:

\I:

lJ

u:23 September 1863 Ko ivukyla, Hietaniemi , Sweden r--1:15 November 1882 Beaver Falls, Minnesota 0 :5 February 1942 La Habra, California

OJALA, .ERKKI

(; rcal-{;ra 1111 fa Ih er: ll:

1851 OJALA

t-.f: IJ:

ALEX

·1 11 :23 March 1880 Ei manka , Finland l_l'.a_r_ c_h_l_8_5__4_ _ _ __.1i\1 ~3 Nov ember 1903

Spouse: ENO BLOOU,

I :rcal-(;raadrnotlu•r:

1\1:

D: 12 March 1948

~inneapolis,

Minnesota

D:25 Jul:v 1945 Toppenish, Washington

~~~;Tt~~~.rratf.~.~KA KUSTAV June 1844 t-l:i July 1871 D:2 March 1915 :PI'l'Kl).N'EH, EVA (,real·( 11'aodru11t!1cr:

U:l6 Jar!uury 1851 1 JUl'.7 1871 D. l !1'.ay 1921

Mother: OJALA, TYYlffi EVA

U: 9 June 1905

Minne~polis, Minnesota M:19 Aur-u'st 1925 Buffalo, Minnesota

II: 19

t,f :

B: 16 December 1934 Minneapolis, Minnes ot M: 25 June 1955 Minneapolis, ~innesot

Grandfatiwr:

PERTTULA, EEVA MARIA

JJ·_ l_5_ ·

Writer's Name: SELVALA, RCBERT WA

IJ:

u:l4 September 1876 Juuka, Finland fl.113 November 1903 Minneapolisa Minnesota D: 11 March 1'::165 Minneapolis, Minnesota

~'.AE

V

U: 8 June 1934 M: Minneapolis, Minnesot. 25 June 1955 U: Minneapolis , Minneiioti

done you will want to contact other family members for more information and answers to si}ecific questions. Some "research" on the telephone, over coffee cups or by mail, will alert family members to your project and bring in a suprising amount of information. You have, of course, both a patrilineal (father's) and matrilineal (mother's) line to follow. You can chart them separately and make your first decisions on how fully you will follow each line of descent in your family history. Now take stock and determine what additional information you must get through further interviewing of family members and by searching for records either in family homes or public sources. It takes time and effort to get specific information. Facts will turn up as a by-product of your inquiries into family life. The blank spaces on the chart need not keep you from assembling information for the family history, or from completing a history of known family members. Family trees are often artificial creations not reflecting real family relations and experiences. You may discover that at some point the center of your family life was a household that included not just parents and children but also grandparents, assorted other relatives and boarders. Here is where uncles, aunts, or even family boarders inevitably enter your story, sometimes as major characters. Thus, a "family tree" will become instead a "family group record" that more accurately reflects the family as it really was. The "Family Group Record" form which appears at the end of this Handbook is for your convenience in recording information on the family unit which cannot be recorded on the Family Tree Chart. The outlines of family history take shape as the Chart is filled out: it reads from left to right more or less as your family history narrative will run. Circle the names of the immigrant members of the family. From there to the left are your Finland roots; to the right is the Finnish American family. You are now ready to move to consider what goes into a family history besides the skeleton of family relationships you have begun to work out in the "family tree."

A family group snapshot. [Robert Lundeen)

14

What Goes Into Family History Family history is a record of the ordinary events of family life as well as ~f memorable or exciting happenings. It describes people and their relationships one to another. It tells what happened to them at various times and what they did, and even how they felt and thought about the world around them. Family history does not have to make judgments or draw conclusions. The written words of the family historian, the written reminiscences of family members, tapes of interviews, photographs, letters, copies of documents recording vital statistics, and even lists and photos of family heirlooms and home decorations tell the family story. You can safely assume that detailed descriptions of family life and all the tales and anecdotes you collect through interviewing family members will be of interest and value to both your family and scholarly researchers. Many Finnish American family histories show the self-sufficiency of immigrant family life, especially in rural areas. Homes, saunas and barns were constructed, first crops of potatoes or rye planted among the remaining stumps of newly cleared land, furniture made for the house, looms provided for women to weave cloth or make rugs, game and fish harvested for food, an infinite variety of activities performed in a family division of labor or by sharing with neighbors. Generally too these stories relate how the men worked in the woods, railroad construction or in mining, while the women tended the farm. These are general patterns of Finnish immigrant life, and each new history adds to the knowledge of this complex story in which ways of life and ways of doing things in the old world were often applied to the beginnings of life in the new, so that Finnish farmsteads in America had a distinctive character. A description of modifications and changes in these family life patterns over the years would reflect the way Finnish American life changed. Or let us take unrelated items from family stories in three different communities. One describes their grandmother as the community midwife who also attended the birth of all the family's children. Another relates that their home was the center for receiving new immigrants and making arrangements for their introduction to the community. A third describes how the women would direct new immigrants to shop in stores where Finnish was spoken and pressured the management to see that clerks serving these customers used Finnish. Social historians will find here clues to the kind of mutual support structure that enabled the immigrant community to function and to integrate new members. Look now at the brief extracts from several published and unpublished family histories that are reproduced in this section as illustrations of what goes into family histories. We know that Finnish immigrant women worked in homes as domestics, in restaurants, hotels and boarding houses when employed outside the home. Formal histories haven't described this as well as the reprinted story of one woman's 15

Family group on the old homestead, northern Minnesota.

employment in Jukola's Boarding House, one of Minnesota·s significant Finnish American institutions .

•

Hilma had a full time job at the Hollar.d Hotel, as dishwasher, and Anna got a day time job as extra girl for Spring cleaning. She didn't like it. She worked the first day alone in the dark halls, dusting walls and ceilings, and cleaning rugs. There were no windows ... That evening she quit the job. The next day she answered ads and got a job as house maid in the home of a mining man .... (whose wife) was a systematic housekeeper and ran her house by schedule and routine. Her house was immacu late and she kept Anna busy all day. The floors were polished daily on hands and knees, the rugs were cleaned and furniture dusted, until every room was as clean as a hospital. It was hard labor. One morning the master of the house came into the kitchen as Anna was preparing breakfast. He watched her for a while and came up behind her, put his arms around her and said, "You're a nice girl to have around. I hope we can get better acquainted." Anna wrenched herself free as she thought. 'You won't see me around very long.' When her pay day came, she left. She was learning what living away from the shelter of home was like.

Her next job was in a Jewish family. Here she had a feather bed to sleep in. When she got into it she thought she would hit the floor. It was cozy, but too warm. She was used to sleeping in a cool bed . The food and cooking customs were strange to Anna. She couldn 't remember what dishes and silverware were used with meat and fish. After a week, she quit in exasperation , thinking, ' why make such a fuss about food.'

16

After a few weeks she felt strong enough to battle the world again. Her next job was in the Jukola boarding house in Virginia. This was owned and ope rated by a group of working people. There were about fifty rooms in the three story building, which was filled to capacity. It was home to the miners and mill workers. A Chef supervised the kitc hen, where all the baking and cooking were done. Anna's job was waiting on the table and washing dishes. Some days there were many hundreds at the tabl es. One morning as she was waiting on the people, a man asked her why she didn't go to the dances and entertainments like the other girls. Anna answered, " I don' t like to go alone. My roommate has a boy friend and I can't go with them." " We'll fix that," he said. The next morning a girl brought her a note written in Finnish. It was a love song at the end of which he asked her to go to the Opera (Finn Hall) with him. Anna answered it saying s he would be happy to go. He was quiet and well mannered, rather shy, and after a few dates, Anna realized she didn ' t really enjoy his company, so when another, bolder man asked for a date, she accepted, not thinking she could have been rude to the first young man. But she wasn't ready to tie herself to anyone. From Ann Turner-Anne E. Lalne's family history, The Scrub Oaks, pp. 78-79•

•

Similarly, the description of a non-English speaking Finnish immigrant as a church and community leader contained in another excerpt illustrates. how family history can relate to local community history through telling a simple anecdote. The story on working in the mines tells us about mine work conditions and pay; it contrasts this with women's life and introduces the problem of the proliferating saloons. 'and drinking common to industrial towns. These excerpts illustrate the scope of family histories, and their potential value to investigators of Finnish American history. Jaakko and Isaac went to work in the underground mine when they found out that the pay was better than at the mill. The work was hard and the working conditions unpleasant. Jaakko worked in a small area with a pick and shovel. The hard ore had to be chopped with picks to loosen it from the wall of the mine and shoveled by hand into waiting mule drawn cars. They were hoisted to the surface and dumped into railroad cars which were hauled to the ore docks in Two Harbors. The miners wore a helmet type yellow hat with candles for light and oiled slicker coats, and high boots in which were pockets for extra candles. The ground beneath was cold and wet from underground seepage from springs. During the lunch break, they gathered into the 'dry' room where they warmed their cold feet as they ate. Those who did not like cold tea, warmed it by the heat from the lighted cand les. A working day was ten hours and the pay a dollar or more a day. It was hard-earned money. There was no insurance and increment pay was unheard of. It took many generations of workers before conditions were improved.

17

While their young husbands toiled in the mine, the young wives took delight in their new role of wife and housekeeper. They were thrifty housewives. There were no stores in Soudan. Merchants from Tower operated delivery services. Once or twice a week they took orders for meat and groceries and made deliveries. The delivery boy drove a onehorse wagon as he sat under a large, bright colored umbrella advertising store wares. The accounts were settled after payday. Jaakko and Isaac were temperate men and didn't frequent the many saloons in Tower so there was always money with which to settle the bills. Other wives were not as fortunate. Women didn't go Inside the saloons but stood at the outside of the doors to wait for their wayward husbands. Many spent all their earnings in drink and the grocery accounts remained unpaid. The Scrub Oaks, p. 14

Of course one theme is exploring the cultural and ethnic factor in our personal histories: discovering thereby what, if any, influence these have had, and what kind of cultural continuity there is among Finnish Americans. Many personal accounts of second generation experience, for instance, describe the inability to speak any English up to entering school. What were experiences in your family related to language use both in and outside the home? Did Finnishness seem to make a practical difference in school, at work, in the community? Or, on the other hand , what happened with respect to contacts and friendships in the non-Finn community? Intermarriage between Finns and nonFinns was quite rare in the first and second generation but has become commonplace in the third and ·fourth. These are matters of family history to be recorded in as much detail as possible, and are of interest in noting in what ways Finnish American tradition persists among families of Finnish heritage. Family history is very highly biographical: but it is also autobiographical. As the family historian, you need not be only an observer of others: you can relate the history of your family over your own lifetime in the first person. Many family stories are told this way, and can include personal reminiscenses that begin with descriptions of a Finnish American childhood and go on to life experiences of the narrator.

18

Minnesota History Background It is not your task as family historian to try to tell the whole history of

Finns in Minnesota, but it may help you to gain perspective on your family history to be aware of this backdrop to personal history. Minnesota's Finns were not "sod busters" like the earlier German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish immigrants who settled the best virgin prairie soil and took up homesteads in the years immediately before and following the Civil War. In 1864 the first Finns, travelling with Norwegian immigrants, came to Redwing and St. Peter, going to work in the woods or harvests. Two men enlisted in the Union Army and served until demobilization less than a year later. In 1865 these first immigrants and other new arrivals homesteaded at Franklin (near Fort Ridgely) and then near Cokato (Wright County) and in Holmes City (Douglas County). Most got less desirable, forested or low-lying lands. Shortly thereafter, in the 1870's and 1880's, the first Finns settled around New York Mills (a sawmill location) ; on the outskirts of Duluth, extending into Carlton County; and in Minneapolis where they worked in brickyards, sawmills, and in the homes of the well-to-do as maids and cooks. The Duluth-Minneapolis railroad in 1870 and the Northern Pacific from Duluth westward through Fargo in 1871, gave direct access to Northern, Central and Western Minnesota and opened the gateway for Michigan Finns, especially from the Copper County, to re-settle in Minnesota or farther West. These ex-Michigan Finns migrated in a steady stream, making up the bulk of new settlers in the Finnish communities through the 1870's and 1880's. They were joined by newer immigrants arriving through Quebec and down the Great Lakes to Duluth. The story of these early Finnish communities is recorded in Volume two of Amerikan Suomalaisten Historia by the Reverend Salomon llmonen. Most of the first settlers are listed by name, often with information on the date of birth, place of origin in Finland and Norway, when and where they settled; who they married; and even how many children they had and when they died. With Minnesota's best farm lands taken up, this state might never have become a major Filll}ish American settlement if iron ore had not been discovered on the Vermilion and Mesabi Iron Ranges. The turning point was 1884 when Finns went to work in the Tower-Soudan underground mines. In the late 1880's and 1890's, Finns settled in all the communities and mine "locations" from Ely to Nashwauk as the great mining and lumbering boom got underway. The first Finns came from Michigan as already skilled mine workers, but as the open pits developed there was a need on the Mesabi for thousands of semi-skilled and unskilled laborers. The need spilled over into the logging camps 19

and mushrooming sawmills as well as to the ore shipping docks of Duluth-Superior and Two Harbors. In 1905 Finns made up just under 40 percent of the foreign born population in twelve major Mesabi towns and villages. The vast majority of Northeastern Minnesota mine, lumber, factory and mill workers were foreign born. They arrived in the late 19th and early 20th century. Most came from Eastern and Southern Europe. The 1910 and 1920 census reports distribute these foreign born Minnesotans among different nationalities as follows: Finns Poles Slovenes, Croatians, Serbians Italians Russians

1910

1920

25,553 20,153

27,571 16,857

13,662 9,882 823

11,184 7,533 4,232

The Finns in Minnesota were the largest of these immigrant groups who came in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It was this mixed ethnic society that made up the communities in which they lived, especially on the Iron Ranges and in Duluth-Superior. Our Finnish Ameri can history cannot be told in isolation from the communities and neighbors surrounding them. Ilmonen's Amerikan Suomalaisten Historia, Volume III, lists many of the early settlers (without biographical details) in almost all the Mesabi communities, and in Crow Wing, Aitkin, Carlton, Lake, Pine, a nd a number of other counties where settlement was particularly heavy in the period from 1890 to 1910. This volume does not include the huge migration to new rural areas that followed on the 1907 Mesabi strike.

Typical of scores of pictures featuring the family car.

20

A house warming party at the Victor Elo farm in Cherry (Iron].

In all matters the pioneers were on their own. Aunt Ida was the acting undertaker in the community - fixing the bodies for the caskets after first finishing the insides of the home-made boxes to look nice. Uncle Beckman was the lay minister, deputy to the Rev. E.V. Niemi who came from Thompson once a month - conditions permitting, for church services. Uncle baptized the babies and officiated at funerals. At first it was only wilderness. Aunt Ida, with Charles Hill from the north side, organized the sc;hool district and the township, and was the first clerk for both. She and some of the uncles were always on the school board or the town board. Food was raised, fished , snared , or hunted. In the early spring waters of the Rice River suckers and buffalofish could be speared ··· they even washed into the fields when the river overran its banks. Partridge and rabbits cou ld be snared but venison called for a gun. lrj a Beckman, Echoes from the Past, p. 15.

21

Second only to Iron mining, the lumber Industry employed Minnesota's Immigrant Finns. In the camps, talk and music helped to pass the time.

22

"Young, active and exuberant" as was Hiima Westerback Maljala born In Alajarvl, Finland, Robert Lundeen's maternal grandmother.

Do you think of the first generation Finns as " old grandfathers and grandmothers?" That may be how they are remembered. But think of this: 53.2 percent of all immigrants from Finland were 16 to 25 years of age; over 10 percent were under 16; while altogether 80 percent were under 30. They were young, active and exuberant--and 74.6 percent were single, unmarried persons. Overall, women were 35.1 percent of the total. But on the Mesabi in 1895 there was only one woman to every four men. By 1920 in Minnesota, Finnish immigrant women had 23

become 38.6 percent of Minnesota's Finnish population foreign born and in 1930 they were 41.3 percent. In Minneapolis in 1920 there were 549 men and 513 women over 21 years of age who were born in Finland. The Finnish American family was, therefore, primarily "made-inAmerica" after immigration--probably most were formed by 1920. An intriguing and, as yet, unanswered question of family history is: where and how did men and women meet; their courtship; the gradual equalization of male and female population in most communities. Activities, Churches, and Societies

Wherever Finns have gone they have brought with them both patterns of family and group activity. The earliest Minnesota settlers, coming from Norway and Northern Finland where the influence of Lars Levi Laestadius was widespread, carried his teachings with them and founded local Lutheran congregations on this basis as they had done in Upper Michigan. Other settlers founded churches affiliated either to Suomi Synod, the Finnish National Church or that remained independent. The Suomi Synod grew out of contacts with the Scandinavic.n Augustana Synod in Minneapolis. In Minnesota, as in other areas, the early churches were outstripped by temperance clubs that spread like prairie and forest fires to all the Finnish communities: from the early 1890's to World War I Minnesota was a stronghold of Finnish temperance activity, as many as fifty clubs existing simultaneously.

Pine Hill Lutheran Church, Midway Township near Duluth. (Photos of Midway Township scenes by Carl Ross and Marianne Wargelln Brown.]

24

Grave marker of Finnish American veteran giving dates and military units served in , Pine Hiii Cemetery, Midway Township.

It has been said that wherever there were three Finns, they formed at least two organizations. While perhaps not literally true, the anecdote reflects both the diversity of Finnish American life and culture and the richness and variety of their associational life. Underlying the motives that led F innish Americans to form a particular kind of organization or group based on religious, political or other considerations is a singular unanimity in keeping faith with cultural traditions originating in Finland: a desire to perpetuate Finnish language, literature, music, dance, athletic versatility and ethnic identity.

The role of Finnish American societies and groups that played some part in Minnesota life is almost endless and each community has been enriched by one or more of them whether religious or secular. Finnish churches, Finn halls, and Co-op stores--the traditional main centers of Finnish life--symbolize their pervasive influence, often among both Finns and non-Finns. Activity in Finnish American organizations and societies trained individuals in self-expression and organizational ability and provided a high motivation, often making Finns community leaders. While not many Finns have sought higher elective office in Minnesota, the numbers active on local school and town boards, in community groups initiating a local Co-op elevator, creamery or store, and taking part in civic affairs for temperance, war or disaster relief, peace and other causes, has been exceptionally high. Association and society records have given historians insight into this phase of Finnish American life, but family histories can tell a story in terms of personal recollections and experiences that will relate what these ethnic institutions have meant to Finnish Americans and what role they played in retention of the Finnish heritage in Minnesota. 25

Religion was very important In the Nikkari family .... Matti Nikkarf served as president of the congregation from 1927 to 1947 while Elizabeth was an active member of the ladies aid .... Matti was also a participant in commun ity affairs and relished t he attention of an audience. A neighbor characterized him in this way. "M.S. Nikkari was exceptionally good in bringing out his ideas. He would take his time, stand up, and raise one leg up on a chair. If you didn't understand it when Matti was done explaining it, then you'd never understand it."

Yet all of Matti Nikkari 's discourses were delivered in the Finnish language, which gives some indication of the overwhelming Finnish nature of the community. Matti served as treasurer of Blowers Township for ten years and was a member of the Sebeka Co-op Board and president of the Sebeka Creamery Board. In later years, as the creamery membership grew to include more non-Finns and the official business language was changed to English, Matti was still delivering his speeches with the aid of an interpreter who would follow Matti 's words with the following, "Mr. Nikkari bring out that.. .. "

From Debby Nikkari' s Family History (I mmigration History Research Center Archives, St. Paul)

From Immigrant Radicalism to the New Deal

Life and conditions for immigrant laborers were always difficult and especially so before the unionization of mine and forest product workers in the late 1930's and 1940's. Labor movements, trade unions, and radical organizations had a strong appeal to many of Minnesota's Finns, especially since their migration to America coincided with the rise of a mass Social Democratic Party in Finland and the popular movement against Czarist Russian oppression in 1905. The formation of the Finnish American Socialist Federation in 1906 at a Hibbing Convention and the subsequent Mesabi Miners Strike in 1907, left in their wake a divided and often embittered Finnish community. In the first big migration of Minnesota Finns from towns to farms, hundreds of mine workers and their families moved from the Mesabi mining towns to rural areas after this strike as a result of black-listing by the mining companies. Small Finn rural communities, particularly in St. Louis County, became substantial settlements with bustling activities of all kinds. Labor militancy among the Finns was a factor making for the second big Mesabi miners strike in 1916 and the strike of some 4,000 lumber workers in the winter of 1916-1917 of whom nearly one-half were Finns. The identification of Finns with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Socialism, anti-war sentiments, aQd labor activism had much to do with fueling anti-Finn prejudices during World War I. It was a time when many Minnesotans of other ethnic backgrounds Oike U.S. Representative Charles Lindberg, Sr.) also were singled out for attack by the Minnesota Committee on Public Safety and "super patriots. " By 1917 and throughout the 1920's, the emphasis shifted to building cooperatives as the answer to social and economic problems-stores, creameries, grain elevators, eventually oil co-ops, insurance co-ops, power co-ops : all had much of their inspiration from the example of Minnesota's Finnish Americans.

26

A " Hoovervllle" shack, Depression of 30' s. Immigration did not always mean escape f rom poverty.

Mother sometimes spoke of the famine years of 1862 to 1868 in Finland. She was born in 1860 so she was old enough to remember having to beg for food. It meant nothing that they had large grain fields at their home -- in fact, much grain was wasted all those years for seed because frosts wiped away the harvest year after year .. .. Pine bark and moss were ground up and mixed with flour for bread. Sometime around then, Grandfather was conscripted into the Russian Army and some food must have been provided for his family because Mother told how happy it made them to be able to share with others. Alma Lundeen, Corduroy Roads, p. 52

27

Researching newspapers can turn up a picture such as this 1910 photo of the Youth League Gymnastic Club of the Cokato Temperance Hall which is now on the National Register of Historic Sites . Each person In the picture Is identified In the caption of the picture which appeared In the Cokato Enterprise, April 4, 1976. [From Hazel Barberg] Below is a snapshot of the "Reipas" Club in Cherry , about 1930. [From Tolnl Mackle.)

£28

From the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929 to the end of World War II in 1945 we had "Hoovervilles," and "Bonus Marches," "Farm Holidays," picket lines, the C.1.0., the New Deal, the Farmer Labor Party, and, of course, -the draft that sent young men into the armed forces to fight against fascism and militarism. When it was all over, the world and America had changed. From the viewpoint of Finnish American history it was a unique time. The immigrant generation was still largely in its vigorous middle age. Their children were old enough to act like adults and bear the burdens of military and other war service. Or the second generation made their own moves to escape the depressionlridden " hometown" in the bad years to go to the bigger cities, especially west to take war jobs. The times were a crossroads of the experience of several generations living simultaneously through extraordinary experiences. Many family histories will necessarily tell us much of how it was to live in that period whatever age the individuals happened to be. Few families were ever again the same. The time span we have covered in our review of Finnish American history is important since the personal memory of the years of 19001950 will soon be lost if it is not recorded now. The story of the 50's, 60's, and 70's belongs to history also, and you should not hesitate to include chapters of it in your family story, but it is the first half of this century that deserves the emphasis.

Another family group picture which includes important others In his life: his godparents . (Photo from Robert Lundeen)

29

I N MEMOR Y OF HILMA AMANDA HILL Born in Alajarvi Vaasanlaani, Finland, Janu,1ry 6. 1880 Came to the United States 1891 To Kalevala Community 1900 Married Matt Maijala 1898 in Eveleth; He died in Nov. 1923 Married Hjalmcr Hill. Sept. 1939 at Minneapoiis Entered Into Rest Tuesday, Ju ly 31, 1951 at 6:50 ~-::._. / ';.Vc.---7/c,// t {,-.,,-~ ~~, /.._~Lr,~•

·"

..,/'

;- ;

/·: ~..e.--r~ ··'l /:\-/

.

/-~ ~-~ ··. ,/;· 'i: >_(•

/

....

.,;,..,q, .-z.-v

.·~-M~ -

c."'f· •·

,-tp...VA'.